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On the road to Santiago

San Jacopo, whose real name was Giacomo Maggiore, Jesus’ favourite apostle, has been the patron saint of Pistoia since 1145, when Bishop Atto officially inaugurated the chapel, in the Cathedral to house the relic that had come to the city from Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, one of the holiest places of Christianity, where the saints remains lie. As proof of the important role taken on by the city as a stopping-off point along the Compostela pilgrimage route, the Opera di San Jacopo financed the construction of the majestic silver altar dedicated to San Jacopo, which was completed in various phases and makes a fine show in San Zeno Cathedral even today.
A visit to the places of Jacopo worship in Pistoia takes us along the museum routes in the Bishops Palace, where there is the silver shrine of San Jacopo by Lorenzo Ghiberti, the famous artist, who made two bronze doors for the Florentine Baptistery. Here, among the many works of art, including the Cathedral’s valuable treasures, you can admire a fresco depicting the blessing of the pilgrims setting off on their way to Santiago.
The figure of San Jacopo also appears in several paintings in the nearby Civic Museum, sometimes represented as an apostle or, more frequently, in pilgrim’s clothing, wearing a large hat, called a “galero”, with a small cloak or “pellegrina” over his shoulders and a “bordone”, which was useful for striking those with evil intentions, in his hand for support and protection along the way, as well as the shell, known as the “comb of San Jacopo”, which was pinned to his clothes to symbolise the completion of the journey of faith. After exploring the places and memories of Jacopo, us modern pilgrims too can allow ourselves to stop off in one of the centre’s many cake shops and maybe take the opportunity to sample Pistoia’s comfits, a modern version of the handful of moist sugar that was given to the exhausted travellers on reaching the city: sweet little balls with an aniseed centre, anici confecti, which also appeared on the breakfast menu offered by the bishop on the occasion of the celebrations in honour of the patron saint, which is officially celebrated on 25 July.